Cheleken Peninsula pollution sources

Cheleken Peninsula pollution sources

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Description:
Khazar (formerly Cheleken) is a town of 10 000 people
(once 16 000), located on the Cheleken peninsula on
the Caspian shore. Iron bromide (FeBr2) production
started at the Cheleken plant in 1940, followed by iodine
production in 1976. The production capacity of the plant
is about 250 tonnes of iodine a year. The natural water
(brine) found here contains radioactive elements. During
iodine processing, with the coal-absorption method,
radionuclides (mostly Ra) in the brine are deposited on
the surface of pipes and equipment, and in the coal used
in the process itself. About 18 000 tonnes of radioactive
waste have accumulated and are now deposited in an open storage
area less than 200 metres from the sea.

Infant mortality in Eastern Azerbaijan, 2008Public health policies during the Soviet period
eliminated several traditional diseases. But for lack of
adequate investment in medical equipment and drugs
in the 1970s and 1980s they failed to effectively halt a
wor...

A century of outflow into Kara Bogaz Gol, km3/ yearComparing a series of satellite images from different
periods a Californian hydrologist discovered in 1983 that
a huge white spot had taken the place of the vast Kara
Bogaz Gol gulf (literally “dark gullet” in Turkmen...

When the Kara Bogaz Gol vanishedComparing a series of satellite images from different periods a Californian hydrologist discovered in 1983 that a huge white spot had taken the place of the vast Kara Bogaz Gol gulf (literally “dark gullet” in Turkmen) i...

Collapse of Tulka in the CaspianThe comb jelly is well adapted to the habitat (salinity,
temperature, and food range) and reproduces faster
than endemic species. As it eats the same food as them,
it has had a drastic effect on their numbers, upsetti...

By GRID-Arendal

Changing CaspianThe Caspian Sea has been endoreic – inwardly draining –
since the Pliocene era (about 5 million years ago),
prompting some specialists to treat it as the world’s largest
lake. Studies of its geomorphology and hydrolog...

Origin and destination of selected speciesNorth American comb jelly (Mnemiopsis
leidyi) was brought accidentally to the Caspian in
the ballast water of oil tankers. A voracious feeder on
zooplankton and fish larvae, it first arrived in the Black Sea
in the e...

Total population per region, district or oblastApart from two large urban areas – Baku- Sumgait and Makhachkala-Kaspisk – and the Iranian coast on the southern shore, a very
densely populated coastal strip where one agglomeration leads into the next, most of the pop...